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Wear of valve train components has increasingly become a problem in engine durability and reliability these days, due to the many design changes to meet the requirements of emission legislation and high performance of automotive engines. To minimize friction and the possibility of severe wear at the cam/tappet interface, the analysis at the design stage of tribological behavior of the cam/tappet pair is important and has become an important feature in valve train design. This paper describes the development of a valve train friction and lubrication analysis model and its application in a cam/tappet wear study. The model is based on established technology including kinematic and dynamic analyses, prediction of Hertzian stress of both line and elliptical contacts, the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) theory a mixed-friction model which separately predicts hydrodynamic and boundary friction and estimation of the average surface temperature using the flash temperature concept.